Courses > Plants Protocol
Course Overview
This comprehensive 90-day online course is designed to empower home cooks, healthcare professionals, and food enthusiasts with the knowledge and techniques needed to create vibrant, nourishing meals rooted in a whole-food, plant-based lifestyle. With an emphasis on low fat, no oil, low salt, and …
Click to expand...Course Objectives
- Understand and apply key principles of whole-food plant-based nutrition
- Demonstrate knife handling and a variety of knife cuts
- Demonstrate moist cooking methods, such as steaming and simmering
- Demonstrate dry cooking methods such as roasting, and sautéing without oil
- Develop flavor using herbs, spices and other ingredients
- Understand principles of flavor balancing, building, layering and seasoning
- Learn how to prepare delicious desserts
- Plan and organize daily meals and apply principles of batch cooking
- Prepare a wide array of plant-based staple recipes for breakfast, lunch and dinner
Course Syllabus
Unit 1: Introduction: Setting Up for Kitchen Success
This unit is your introduction to the course, which will get you ready to cook and set for success. You’ll learn the basic philosophy of the Forks Over Knives dietary plan beginning with shopping, and stocking your kitchen with the necessary ingredients and tools.
Lesson 1
Welcome & Introduction
Lesson 2
The Whole-Food, Plant-Based Lifestyle
This lesson explores the differences between processed and whole foods, and examines the nutritional reasons to include more plants in the diet.
Lesson 3
Introduction to Plant-Based Nutrition
In this lesson, you will learn the common nutritional myths about eating a plant-based diet and some basic science to support a balanced plant-focused diet.
Lesson 4
Setting Up Your Whole Food Kitchen
This lesson gets you ready to cook. It demonstrates how to reset your cupboards and refrigerator to prepare for cooking in a plant-based, whole food kitchen.
Lesson 5
Introduction to Kitchen Tools & Equipment
In this lesson, you will discover how to set up and organize a kitchen with the essential tools and equipment.
Lesson 6
Unit Review & Evaluation
Unit 2: Knife Skills
This unit charts a path for you to become more comfortable and proficient handling a knife. Since a knife is the most important tool in the kitchen, we offer guidance on how to select and care for your knives while giving you ample opportunity to practice your skills.
Lesson 1
Unit Introduction
Lesson 2
Knives & Knife Sets
Learn what to look for when selecting the right knife and why it's important to use high-quality knives.
Lesson 3
Handling Your Chef's Knife
Tackle the techniques behind using the most important knife in your kitchen: the chef's knife.
Lesson 4
Cutting with a Chef’s Knife
Tackle the techniques behind using the most important knife in your kitchen: the chef's knife.
Lesson 5
Unit Review & Assessment
Unit 3: Moist Heat Cooking Methods
This unit focuses on moist-heat cooking methods, such as steaming, submersion, simmering and boiling, and the importance of preserving vegetable pigments for health and presentation. It also addresses how to properly finish steamed vegetables for extra flavor and appeal.
Lesson 1
Unit Introduction
Lesson 2
How to Steam Vegetables
In this lesson, you will learn to steam and finish many different sizes of vegetables.
Lesson 3
Vegetable Pigments
Learn some simple methods for preserving the pigments in vegetables so you can serve and eat them in all their colorful glory.
Lesson 4
Submersion Cookery for Vegetables
Poaching, simmering or boiling are moist-heat cooking methods that involve submerging the ingredients in hot liquids to cook them.
Lesson 5
Unit Review & Assessment
Unit 4: Dry Heat Cooking Methods
This unit focuses on dry-heat cooking methods. It will introduce some foundational knowledge on how to heat a pan and how to correctly sauté vegetables without the use of oil. This unit also covers the techniques of sautéing, roasting, and building flavor without the use of refined fats.
Lesson 1
Unit Introduction
Lesson 3
The No-Oil Sauté
Learning how to sauté is an important task for any home cook or professional chef. It is one of the fastest and most common dry-heat cooking methods used to cook bite-sized pieces of food in a pan.
Lesson 4
How to Roast without Oil
When cooked properly and to the right doneness, roasted vegetables not only look beautiful, they have a delicious and earthy flavor that pairs well with almost any dish.
Lesson 5
Combining Moist & Dry Heat Methods
Combination cooking involves both dry- and moist-heat cooking. Braising, stewing and pot-roasting are combination cooking methods that are excellent for cooking certain vegetables as well as for cooking tofu, tempeh and seitan.
Lesson 6
Unit Review & Assessment
Unit 5: Meal Prep & Batch Cooking
This unit introduces you to the concept of batch cooking whole grains, legumes and rice. Batch cooking is a process that will help you prepare ingredients ahead of time. It makes menu planning more efficient and helps you stock up so that throughout the week you are set up for success in the kitchen.
Lesson 1
Unit Introduction
This unit introduces you to the concept of batch cooking whole grains, legumes and rice. Batch cooking is a process that will help you prepare ingredients ahead of time. It makes menu planning more efficient and helps you stock up so that throughout the week you are set up for success in the kitchen.
Lesson 2
Meal Prep & Batch Cooking | Introduction
This lesson introduces you to the concept of batch cooking which will help you be prepared to eat well throughout the week.
Lesson 3
Whole Grain Cookery
This lesson will teach you how to prepare rice and grains in safe and healthy ways, and introduce you to the versatile grain quinoa.
Lesson 4
Cooking Legumes
In this lesson you will learn how to buy, store, soak, and prepare dried legumes.
Lesson 5
Pressure Cooking
This lesson shows you how pressure cookers truly cook foods and how safe they are when properly used. Pressure cooking can open up a whole new range of flavors and textures in your kitchen that you did not think possible.
Lesson 6
Unit Review & Assessment
Unit 6: Building Flavor: The Art and Science of Seasoning
This unit focuses on seasoning and flavor combinations. We’ll discuss the importance of finishing with salt and using whole food fats, acids, sweeteners, herbs and spices. We will also show you how to use them to create balanced, exciting flavor profiles in your recipes and menus.
Lesson 1
Unit Orientation
Lesson 2
Basic Seasoning & Reducing Sodium
In this lesson, you will discover types of salt, as well as the importance and function of sodium in recipes. You will also learn when and why it is sometimes appropriate to limit the use of sodium.
Lesson 3
Whole Food Fats
In this lesson you will learn how to identify and classify plant-based fats and sugars. You will also learn ways to use whole food fats and fruit sugars in recipes.
Lesson 4
Working with Sweeteners
Lesson 5
Acids: Vinegar, Alcohol & Citrus
In this lesson, you will learn about the different types of acids, their role in creating balanced flavor profiles and how to use them effectively.
Lesson 6
Herbs & Spices
In this lesson, you will explore the world of herbs and spices. You will learn how to choose, store, use and prepare spices. You will also learn more advanced methods of combining herbs and spices.
Lesson 7
Unit Review & Assessment
Unit 7: Staples of the Plant-Based Kitchen
In this unit, you will explore everyday staples and foundational recipes to help you build plant-based menus. In this unit, you will learn how to adapt familiar foods and Forks Over Knives staple items such as stocks, soups, dressings, and sauces without the use of refined oils. This unit also covers the multiple ways to create dairy alternatives in your home kitchen.
Lesson 1
Unit Orientation
Lesson 2
Plant-Based Stocks
In this lesson, you will learn how to create vegetable-based stocks from scratch. These stocks will be a staple for the soups and sauces that you will encounter in future lessons.
Lesson 3
Stocks, Soups & Stews
Appreciated for their comforting and soul-warming qualities, soups are easy to make. No wonder they're a favorite dish in nearly every food culture.
Lesson 4
Oil-Free Dressings & Marinades
Dressings and marinades are essential when creating flavor-packed dishes. In this lesson, you will discover simple formulas for creating dressings and marinades with a balanced flavor profile using minimal or no sodium and no oil.
Lesson 5
No-Oil Base Sauces
This lesson will show you how to create versatile modern sauces for multiple recipes, such as basic white sauce, red sauce and brown sauce--without added oil or salt.
Lesson 6
Plant-Based Dairy Alternatives
In this lesson, you will learn some key plant-based substitutions for dairy products, as well as techniques for how to use them. You'll also learn some basic recipes for creating staple dairy alternatives, which will help you to convert dairy-based recipes to plant-based recipes.
Lesson 7
Unit Review & Assessment
Unit 8: Meal Planning
This unit highlights how you can make plant-based choices all day, and all week, long. It focuses on recipes and techniques that you can use to build healthful and delicious breakfasts, lunches and dinners. It also discusses how to repurpose ingredients throughout the week to save both time and money.
Lesson 1
Unit Introduction
Lesson 2
Time for Breakfast!
In this lesson you will learn some simple formulas for creating a number of breakfast items such as smoothies, breakfast bowls and comfort foods like french toast, waffles and scrambles.
Lesson 3
It's Lunchtime!
In this lesson, you will learn about some staple lunch items and formulas to create a variety of plant-based salads and grain and bean bowls.
Lesson 4
Let's Have Dinner!
In this lesson you will learn affordable and quick dinner ideas such as one pot meals along with formulas for creating veggie burgers from scratch.
Lesson 5
Who Wants Dessert?
Following a plant-based food program doesn't mean you can't indulge in the occasional treat. In this lesson, you will learn basic techniques and methods for creating simple, plant-based desserts.
Unit 9: Final Assessment
This is where it all comes together. In this unit, you will be given your final assessment on the material that is covered in the preceding units.
Lesson 1
Course Review & Final Assessment
This is where it all comes together. In this unit, you will be given your final assessment on the material that was covered in the preceding units.
Student Work
Pantry
This is a collage photo of my in-kitchen pantry and my back-up pantry. I keep extra supplies in the back-up pantry of those stock i... View More
Practice Recipes
